EXAMPLE TEXT USED IN THE COMPLETE GUIDE
WHY, WHEN AND HOW TO REVIEW YOUR ASSESSMENT
There are only two ways to lower your property tax bill. You can partake
in the hallowed American tradition of complaining to your local officials
that the property tax rate is too high, or you can attempt to lower your
assessment. The former is easy but often ineffective; the latter is harder
but offers a greater chance of success.
Homeowners who protest their assessments, with a knowledge of how the system
works, get their assessment reduced the majority of the time without going
beyond the local assessor’s office. The best advice this guide has
to offer is go to your local assessor’s office and check your property
record card for mistakes of fact. Clerical errors and plain mistakes do
occur during the valuation process. This guide offers a list of twenty types
of common mistakes you should check up on.
The annual assessment value is considered tentative during the period of
public inspection of the new tax list occurring ten days before January
10th (see N.J.S.A.54:4-38). The purpose of the ten day inspection period
is to enable the taxpayer to ascertain what assessments have been made against
his or her property and to confer informally with the assessor as to the
correctness of the assessments. This is so that any errors may be corrected
before the assessment list is filed with the County Board of Taxation on
January 10th. In any year in which your property assessment changes more
than the annual rate of property inflation have an informal discussion with
your assessor about your tax assessment before the tentative assessment
period ends on January 10th. At this point, your approach can be informal
and will not require a formal, written appeal.
You have an opportunity once each year to file your formal appeal. It must
be received by the County Board of Taxation on or before April 1 of the
tax year, or 45 days from the date the bulk mailing of Notification of Assessment
is completed in the taxing district, whichever is later.
Find three properties comparable to yours. Any adjustments required to bring
those three comparable properties into conformity with yours are always
applied to the value of the comparable properties you have chosen to prove
your case. They are never made to the value of the subject property.
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